Little House Has A Lesson For All

OMG...I'm such a sap. One of my all time favorite shows is Little House on the Prairie. I LOVE it. And I cry each and every episode. Seriously. I've tested it.

Netflix delivered the pilot movie and the first two discs to my doorstep today. I've had a mini-marathon. A marathon of lessons learned and tears shed. But seriously, who can hold back the tears when lil' Laura writes about how hard Ma works? Only her real essay consisted of four really sad sentences. Yes, she made it up. *sniff* But it was so sweet.

Anyway...where was I?

Oh, so I'm not sure what the deal is, but the first 2-3 episodes have _really bad_ sound. Whenever the characters are outside, in fact, there's next to no ambient noise at all. You SEE the teacher ringing the school bell...you SEE the horse carts going by... but nope, no sounds whatsoever.

It got me thinking about how a real void occurs in a book when no ambience is inserted in the text. I've read a few scenes that are just BARREN. Narry a sound or smell...not a description of what a character looks like...nada. Sure, there are times when a character is in a highly charged emotional state where they wouldn't notice such things around them...but most of the time you need _something_ for the five senses to pick up on. It's probably one of the things I'm most likely to forget in my first draft stage. I'm always having to go back to put in MORE, but I'm learning...getting better. (g) I heard a rule of thumb that you should try to have at least three senses used in every scene. Smell of course is probably the one most overlooked...but I'd bet touch is as well.

What's my point? Not sure I have one. Just something that occurred to me. (g) This show teaches me so much. *sniff*